Quote:I tried my friends Grados. They are unbearable on my ears for more than 5 minutes. Itchy itchy.

Shipdog.com has been processing them for the last 2 days. :-(

Ah yes! Another prime candidate for Grado "Pad Rolling"!

It's amazing how no two people feel the same way about any single Grado pads. I haven't tried Grado "bowls" yet as my MS-1s came with Grado "comfies" which I imediately changed out for Sennheiser HD414s, quarter modded and reversed. Some folks swear by bowls, some folks swear At them. I won't know for a few more days yet! But the pad choices for Grados are bowls, flats, 414s, C-pads, and rat shack plus a few others. And most of these can also be reversed with many of them modded with varrying sized holes. Changing the distance from the ear changes the "sound" and changing pad materials changes the "comfort". I am currently very happy with reversed 414s on my MS-1s, but we'll see what happens with the bowls. My ears are small so I may find my ears falling inside the bowls and touching the drivers screen....I have read of that sometimes happening. My reversed 414s are the "perfect" size, a very comfortable type of foam, and the distance is between flats and bowls!

But the size of the ears coupled with tolerance for pain has much to do with which pads to use, and the taste in "sound" prefered has much to do with which pads also, as the sound changes with the distance. So there are tons of options for tayloring a proper comfort/performance ratio! And they are manufactured right here in good ol' North America.

Brooklyn!! Hand made by a bunch of neighborhood ladies in a three story brownstone house that used to be a veggie stand!! Been there for over fifty years doing audio stuff. How quaint is that!

The sound is cool too. The Grados versions sound much like the M2s through M80s while the Alessandros are more akin to the M3, M40 and M50.

I started with MS-1 to see how they sounded.....just a tad brighter(can we use that word here now?)and a bit more foreward than my M3s, but real darn close. And I'm moving up to the MS2i which reportedly has a bit more bass and upper end extension plus additional soundstage and better resolution of detail, although even a bit brighter(sure I can use that word here?)but a whole lot heavier(like my M50s!) .....ok, only 50% heavier; not like four times or something.

Oops; I'm rambling! I know. I'm waiting for the mail to show up....and it won't even be today! Arrrrrgh!! Rich.